Story

«C’mon Sandy, I’ tell you a bit of stories and lies». Dennis, an old Californian surfer, often invites me to listen to his colorful stories immersed in the beautiful sunsets of the Baja. The beers’ foam is mixed with the just ridden waves’s one, and the memory goes to the honour of the greatest surfers who still inspire us… «Stories and lies», Dennis had said.
An enlightenment, because this is my work’s key: to bring a story, my story, first as a snowboarder and surfer, and then as a craftsman, within the illusion of living epic origins, when everything was still – and only – human enterprise.
I do this “cheating”, repurposing the models and the natural materials that draw on those “flavors”, through the avant-garde “knowledge” and the most advanced technological research. First of all, I do it for myself, according to my creativity and to improve my performances. Afterwards, dialoguing and sharing – often anticipating – moods and feelings of those I encounter, just like old Dennis, “on the field” of mutual passions. But always listening to their stories and maybe some suggestive lie.

«Alessandro, you’re always barefoot, just like singer Sandie Shaw».
I had no time to listen to the umpteenth mono-thematic reproach of my mother. Apocalypse Snow was broadcasting on TV and I was completely astonished.
It was 1983, I was 9 years old and the protagonists’ evolutions in the snow with skis and snowboards in that docu-film, had caught my concentration.
That episode marked my double destiny, the nominal and the professional one: me, Sandy, always barefoot, wanted a snowboard of my own. Just like I had previously wanted a skateboard, when they were still not marketed in Italy, or a windsurf and downhill bike; so I invented it.
It took me 30 years, working in the trade to get to know the market, collaborating with artisans to learn and create prototypes, challenging myself on the slopes to improve my performances, training snowboarding teams to participate from World Championships up to the Olympics.
It took me 30 years but I had what I wanted from my boards: aesthetics, functionality and performance.
Whoever has seen me surfing has repeatedly ruled: “Sandy you know how to ride a snowboard”. Go and tell my mother.